e run-off portion with the thickened knob
(which was not accidental, as it occurred in both cases), like the
residue which semi-fluid substances ending in a drop leave on
evaporation. It keeps itself in position on its back by thrusting
under the web below it the spines with which the anterior upper
surfaces of the legs are furnished." ...

PROTECTIVE HABITS.--Going along with these forms of
protective resemblance, we find certain habits which sometimes serve
independently to protect the spider, but oftener are supplemental to
color and form. Many species hide in crevices or in leaves which they
roll up and bind together at the edges. In the Epeiridae some are like
thaddeus, which makes a little tent of silk under a leaf near its web.
The young thaddeus also makes a tent, but spins its little geometrical
web on the under side of the leaf, the edges being bent downward. E.
insularis has the more common habit of forming its tent by drawing the
edges of two or three leaves together with strands of web; in this it
sits all day, but at night descends and occupies the centre of the web
during the hours of darkness. I have often found it in this position
when hunting nocturnal species by lantern light. It is probable that
in tropical countries the monkeys, and perhaps the birds, which devour
these large Epeiridae have learned to recognize their webs, which are
very large and conspicuous, and to trace them to their hiding places
close by; and thus may have arisen the curious habit noticed by Vinson
as possessed by E. nocturna and E. Isabella of destroying the web each
morning and rebuilding it at night; the spider in this way gaining
greater security from diurnal enemies.

Atypus abbotii builds a purse-shaped tube which is found attached to
the bark of trees, and which has the external surface dark and covered
with sand. The trap-doors which close the nest of some of the
Territelariae are wonderful examples of protective industry. They fit
with such absolute accuracy into the openings of the nests and are so
covered on the upper side with moss, earth, lichens, etc., as to be
indistinguishable from the surrounding surface.

The rectilinear lines which are stretched in front of the webs of
many Epeirids are useful in taking and sending on to the spider the
shock which tells of an approaching enemy. Some spiders, when danger
threatens, shake the web so violently as to grow indistinct to the
eye, and others, as Pholcus atlanticu